What lurks beneath us! – Natural Bridge Caverns, Texas

One weekday during the week in early February 2016, we planned a day trip to visit the Natural Bridge Caverns, located between San Antonio and New Braunfels, Texas. It wasn’t a terribly long ride as it was only about an hour away from where we were parked. Once more, we decided a weekday was best to avoid weekend crowds. HA!! WRONG! The day we went was field trip day! UGH! However, we lucked out, we weren’t ‘with them’ (200 middle schoolers)! WHEW!!!

Its been quite a long time since we’ve visited any caverns; the Lost Sea in Tennessee was the last we’ve visited when our son was 10 years old (he’s 32 now!). So imagine our excitement to go underground to witness the magical wonders of what lurks beneath us.

The Natural Bridge Caverns are the largest known commercial caverns in the U.S. state of Texas.The name was derived from the 60 ft natural limestone slab bridge that spans the amphitheater setting of the cavern’s entrance.

A little bit about Natural Bridge Caverns:

“The Natural Bridge Caverns are the largest known commercial caverns in the U.S. state of Texas.The name[1] was derived from the 60 ft natural limestone slab bridge that spans the amphitheater setting of the cavern’s entrance. The span was left suspended when a sinkhole collapsed below it.

The caverns are still very active and considered living. Due to the porosity of the limestone, rainwater travels downwards through the layers of rock, where it dissolves out calcite, a weak mineral that makes up all of the speleothems at Natural Bridge Caverns. After exiting the limestone, water enters the caverns where it flows and drips constantly throughout, causing the formations to retain a waxy luster that can be seen in few caverns.”

We, luckily, were in a small group of about 12 people, so it made it nice as we were not crowded and our pictures didn’t have other people in them. We were able to appreciate the true beauty of the cavern. Our guide, ‘Bill’ led us down into the Cavern after a little history lesson and to see the Natural Bridge that hovers over the entrance. But first, he had to unlock and open the gate at the Cavern entrance tunnel.

Just some logistics and rules to remind those who may want to alter, remove or vandalize. Just DON’T!

Okay, a little geology education here to describe what you see in our photos.

Speleothems take various forms, depending on whether the water drips, seeps, condenses, flows, or ponds. Many speleothems are named for their resemblance to man-made or natural objects. Types of speleothems include

Dripstone is calcium carbonate in the form of stalactites or stalagmites

Stalactites are pointed pendants hanging from the cave ceiling, from which they grow

Soda straws are very thin but long stalactites having an elongated cylindrical shape rather than the usual more conical shape of stalactites

Helictites are stalactites that have a central canal with twig-like or spiral projections that appear to defy gravity

Include forms known as ribbon helictites, saws, rods, butterflies, hands”, curly-fries, and “clumps of worms”

Chandeliers are complex clusters of ceiling decorations

Stalagmites are the “ground-up” counterparts of stalactites, often blunt mounds

See if you can figure out which photo matched the description of each formation!

Stalagtites

This one was actually creepy looking!

This was named ‘Sherwood’s Forest”(no, really, it was!)

The black section you see are reminents of a bat colony aka ‘bat crap’.

The texture of this one was wavy. Very young Cave Curtains

The only living plant in the cavern

Soda Straws and Broomstick Stalagmites

This is a ColumnIt looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

This looks like a Jellyfish or Man O’War, doesn’t it?

A small underground water pooling. There’s actually tiny organism in there!

These are called ‘Chandeliers’

Dan was digging this (no pun intended!)

Stalagtites

A little bit of everything!

We totally enjoyed our 45 minute tour underground. It gives us an idea of what may lurk under where you walk. Pretty cool, huh? Actually it was…we were in a cave!

There were other things to do at Natural Bridge Caverns (ie. wildlife park, ziplines, tower climbing, rock mining, etc. for extra costs but we chose just to do the Cavern. Its a bit pricey (20 George’s each) but being a commercial venue, what do you expect? This is a great place to bring the family…especially our RV Homeschoolers! Something educational and fun!